Yesterday’s leading BBC News story (which was also the BBC website’s headline story) reported that two British Royal Air ForceEurofighter Typhoons had, earlier that afternoon, been “scrambled to intercept two Russian [Tupolev Tu-160 Blackjack strategic] bombers heading towards UK airspace”. It all sounded rather threatening and unnerving for UK residents. To the casual observer, it might even have appeared that imminent disaster had been warded off at the last minute by quick-acting RAF fighters.

Patrick Pearse, so as to ensure his own execution, is portrayed in this dreadful travesty of the 1916 Revolution as a man willing to guarantee the execution of his fellow signatories to the Proclamation to achieve that end.

The writer and executive producer of this farcical production, Colin Teevan, deserves to be the subject of public opprobrium and ostracism. This was the final indicator in a series of indicators of his intention to portray Pearse in the worst light possible – as a self-centred and evidently insane psychopath. He laid the groundwork for that in each of the scenes in which Pearse appeared from the first episode to tonight’s.

The truth is that Pearse was a complex man, but an honourable one. He was not driven by ego, but by a desire to enhance the lives of others –…

When the Orange Order are finished giving the board of EasyJet a good tongue lashing they may also need to consider popping into Fleet street to give the British press a piece of their mind.

… and they might also need to have a word with the tourist body Visit Belfast.

In commenting on the EasyJet furore in their on-line edition, the Daily Mail stated that (using language somewhat more akin to Sinn Fein)

“Thousands of Pro-British Protestants hold marches every July 12 in the British ruled province to mark a 1690 victory by King William of Orange that sealed Protestant domination, a tradition Catholic Irish nationalists consider provocative”

Clearly no airline can be recommending a ‘cultural’ event which more than 40% of the indigenous population find ‘provocative’ (Without providing the appropriate context).

The media don’t half like flogging dead horses. Right on cue, James McClean‘s move to West Bromwich Albion earlier this week prompted talk in the Belfast Telegraph (not for the first time) of his repeated eschewing of the wearing of a political poppy on his various past clubs’ football jerseys around Britain’s celebration of its Remembrance Sunday each year. This was despite the fact we are half a year on (or away from) November, when the reporting of such a trivial item might have been (or be) remotely relevant, whatever about its questionable justification and newsworthiness.

It’s Wednesday (again) and outside, it’s hardly bothered to get fully bright today. Instead we’ve had light and heavy rain, then light rain, then a brief nearly-damp interval. I went for a run/jog (four miles since you ask) during that. … Continue reading →